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TI3 East Qualifiers Preview

The TI3 East Qualifiers are upon us, and eight of the best teams in China and the SEA region will take part in them. With one spot up for grabs at the most prestigious Dota 2 tournament to date, you can rest assured that there will be no love lost between any of these teams.

As of now, The International 3 looks like this.

At the end of the East Qualifier, one of these eight teams will be up there with the rest of them.

Statistically Significant: Team Previews

By k-poptosis and CountChocula

The International 3 Eastern Qualifiers feature some familiar teams and faces, but also contains several teams that haven't been in the spotlight very much, if at all. Despite limited exposure, all of these teams have certain strategies and tendencies that make them stand out. So let's look at what makes these teams tick.

First Departure

A talented Singaporean newcomer to the competitive scene, First Departure has been picking up momentum by consistently finishing in the Top 3 of past three GosuCups and other SEA tournaments. This team is a strong challenger for the East Qualifier spot.

Despite not forming until after the International 2012, First Departure and their Hard Carry player Meracle- still have a soft spot for Slithice the Naga Siren. She’s their most played carry, having picking her up 11 times in the past few months. They might be onto something as well, as they have a 73% win-rate with her.

LGD.cn

The only team to have a direct invite to TI3 and lose it, LGD.cn are the heavy favourites going into East Qualifiers. Something to watch out for is LGD's choice of going 4-protect-1 or 2-core, a choice that will bring different nuances to the team's playstyle and mid-game decisionmaking.

LGD.cn comes into the qualifiers as the favorite, and is easily the most experienced team to take part in the qualifiers. LGD.cn has played 110 matches as a team, more than double that of the second most experienced team, MiTH-Trust, who have played 42 matches. Despite these higher number of matches, they have the second highest win percentage of any team in the qualifiers (63.6%), and in this regard are actually second to Rattlesnake (64.3%).

Vici Gaming

The perfect storm of young talent and old experience, Vici Gaming showed their versatility in the Bo5 series against MUFC in the recent Netolic Pro League. Led by Cty who has been dubbed a "teen genius", Vici Gaming are one of the favourites to win the East Qualifiers.

Vici Gaming got off to a bit of a slow start as a team, going 8-14 in their first 22 games. However, after the much publicized addition of legendary player ZSMJ, they have been on an absolute tear, winning 13 of their last 16 games (at a 81% winrate) since the addition.

RaTtLeSnAkE

With RaTtLeSnAkE we see a continuation of the maelstrom from yesteryear. What drove LaNm to rip up his contract with Tongfu last year and presented the greatest challenge to date for the Association of Chinese Esports no doubt motivates him to try again for the grand prize (See: Chronicles of LaNm).

RaTtLeSnAkE is a bit of an enigma. They come into the Eastern Qualifiers as one of the newest, but also one of the most successful teams, as they maintain the highest winning percentage of any team in the qualifiers. They also play a more “Western” style of play, with their most picked carry being Gyrocopter. Kabu also plays a very scary Clockwerk, and has a win rate of 83% with the hero while maintaining an assist-to-death ratio of 4.72.

Mineski

One of the elite Filipino teams, Mineski were the team that put Pinoy Dota on the map with their 3rd Place finish at SMM 2011 in a stacked Chinese field. Will Mineski be destined to do it again in a predominantly Chinese field in Dota 2? They play a high-risk/high-reward strategy that perfectly suits their role as the dark horse.

Mineski has the reputation of being one of the more aggressive teams in the Eastern Qualifiers, and for good reason. Their players average 4.9 kills per game, higher than any other team in the qualifiers. However, their players also die more than any team in the qualifiers, with 6.2 deaths per game. The high risk/high reward strategy hasn’t worked terribly well for them overall, as they come into the quals as the team with the lowest win percentage (33%).

RisingStars

The fourth and final Chinese team, RisingStars is the result of a merger between Tier 2 Chinese teams DT.Club and Noah's Ark. While they are still a little rough around the edges, what they lack in refinement and surgical precision, they make up for in aggression and bloodlust. RisingStars are the Dota equivalent of an infighter who relishes an exchange of punches until only one is left standing.

In an interview with GosuGamers earlier this week, iG's ChuaN laughed when asked if Io (Wisp) would ever see play in China and responded, simply saying “no”. Despite that, RisingStars is a Chinese team experimenting with Wisp, picking him up in 1/3 of their games. The experiment doesn’t seem to be going well so far however, as they are 1-3 in those games.

MiTH-Trust

MiTH-Trust is an old school team from Thailand that still retains core members TnK and Lakelz who became famous for their defeats of elite Chinese teams in 2010-2011. They are an underdog team going into the East Qualifiers, but are definitely a team to watch out for.

MiTH-Trust’s hard carry, Lakelz, could be the best farmer in the world. He is averages 278 last hits a game, making him an absolute creep master. He also sits atop the charts with the highest career average GPM, XPM, and total gold of any player with 598, 598, and 23295, respectively.

Dreamz

This is the team Dota fans everywhere cried out for when their more internationally-recognized but arguably weaker compatriot Mineski received a spot in the East Qualifiers and Dreamz did not. Led by captain and ex-Mineski player Julz, Dreamz will be the underdogs in the tournament, but wil no doubt bottle-crow their hearts out to ensure Pinoy representation at TI3.

Dreamz DotA stands as one of only two Filipino teams in the qualifiers. They implement the aggressive style typical of the Pinoy scene, but don't go quite as far as their counterparts Mineski do. They average .8 less deaths, but also .5 less kills, so while they appear to be less risky they maintain a KDR of .8, the same as Mineski. Dreamz does have the higher win percentage of the two, however - 44%.

On May 20 2013 16:19 EnumaAvalon wrote:As a Filipino, I want to ask the TL community... Do you think Mineski or Dreamz has a chance at this? I'm really curious what you think about our style of DotA

sadly this qualifier have LGD.cn and VG name all over them, unless the SEA teams can do DD level surprise I dont see anybody beside them to go to seattle

I totally agree! You should see the Filipinos on Facebook. I'm not sure if they're trolling that Mineski will win it but there seems to be a LOT of them.

I hate to say this as it may sound degoratory, but most Filipinos have this "pinoy pride" issue. i've seen them on FB and on many different games with this phenomena, but seriously there's no chance for any SEA teams to make it out of the qualifier with both LGD & VG there. Unless we factor in the lag issue maybe there's a chance though.

I would still put my money on the China & dark horse FD to make it out. From what i've heard from my sources, FD's been training hard and scriming a lot vs the top teams. They also have been picking Zenith's brains & strategy a lot, so I would count on some surprises coming from FD.